In 1982 I tagged along to work one day with my father during Easter break. At the time he was building the Lutheran Nursing Home on Rt 9 in Ocean View, NJ. At lunch time we took a ride down the street to where his childhood friend Dan Heritage had a surfboard factory. Dan gave us the grand tour of his operation. That day I knew I wanted to surf and that I wanted to make surfboards. In many ways I could say that day totally changed the direction of my life.
That summer I worked at a blueberry farm owned by a family friend and saved every penny so I could buy a surfboard. I rented boards a couple times early that summer. When the blueberry season ended I scraped up everything I’d earned and went to Heritage Surf Shop in Sea Isle City, NJ and Dan Heritage helped me pick this board off the racks.
I paid $210.00 for it and it was the very first thing of any significance I ever purchased with my own hard earned money. It was a pretty wild board for its day. A double wing pintail with channels.
Over the next couple seasons I had a big growth spurt and outgrew this board. At the same time the twin fin era had come to a close. I traded this board in back in 1985 for a new Heritage 6’2 clear squash tail thruster.
Over the years I’ve had countless boards and never really gave this one much thought until a few years back I was in a friend’s shaping room and he had one of these Hawaiian logos hanging on the wall that he’d cut out of the deck of a wrecked board. I remember telling him that my first board was one of those and telling him that if I ever came across my first board I’d pay good money to get it back.
This morning while drinking my morning coffee and randomly surfing the web I hit craigslist to look for vintage surfboards as I occasionally do. Near the top of the page was an unbelievable listing. My very first surfboard. I knew it as soon as I saw the listing because of its distinctive early 80s airbrush. I literally traded this board in exactly 30 years ago this month.
I nervously texted the phone number on the listing praying it hadn’t already sold and immediately got a response. I said I’ll be there in 2 hours. I drove clear across the state this morning to go get it all the while my memory flooding with memories of that board.
Its spent a lot of time in the sun the past 30 years and has faded and yellowed consideably. Its picked up a few stickers and dings along the way. It still has its original multi-color Rainbow Fins.
I’ve often heard old car guys talk of their first cars and how they dreamed of one day getting back that old Chevy, old Ford or GTO they’d let slip away in their youth. I never much cared for cars but this board is every bit as priceless.
I’ve got a couple days worth of ding repairs to do to get it watertight again. I can’t wait to see my 3 children surfing on this thing.
One of the few original pictures I have of this board taken in either 1984 or 1985.
One weathered vintage surfboard with its weathered vintage surfer 30 or 31 years later.
